Diamond dental burrs are made using a nickel electroplating process that co-deposits diamond and nickel onto a small dental burr core or mandrel are made using natural diamond not synthetic diamond. The only known supplier of brazed diamond dental burrs also uses natural diamond as stated in their product specifications.
Brazing of diamond to metal substrates such as used in ophthalmic grinding wheels and other abrasive tools is known such as shown in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,776,862 and 4,968,326. As inventor of these patents, it occurred to me that brazed diamond dental burrs would provide a dentist with a longer life higher quality tool. Additionally, brazing would be more environmentally friendly than electroplated tool and would result in cost savings.
Typically, vacuum furnaces are used for brazing of diamonds onto abrasive tools. The substrates I have used in the past are typically large and robust and this method of heating has been used very effectively to provide diamond abrasive surfaces to brazed tools.
However, I have found that using conventional vacuum furnace brazing techniques with the delicacy involved in the size of diamond burr type tools resulted in warp-age and uneven and unacceptable results.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for an improved process to provide efficient and effective manufacture of brazed diamond dental burrs.